Faces of our loved ones

Midway through Mark's second deployment, we were contacted by an old friend whose son, a Marine, was heading for Iraq. It seemed that a local church, Christ Episcopal Church of Ponte Vedra Beach, was forming a military support network for families who had sons and daughters in the military. The Sunday before Memorial Day, Madeliene Tavares , a talented writer who has written op-ed pieces for USA Today, invited us to a service at the church. The group had posted photographs of all our soldiers and Marines , 18 in all, in honor of Memorial Day. Some of our sons are home, some are in theater, some are training to go back. Eighteen, from our tiny community. It's hard to imagine.

We would have never made it through our last deployment without this group.